THE NIGHT MISS NANCY ANN'S HOTEL FOR SINGLE GIRLS BURNED DOWN
Written by Dick Feller
Recorded by Tex Williams

Now Miss Nancy Ann ran a boardin' house with a faded sign that read:
"Single rooms for single girls. no men allowed" it said;
But rumor had it that a gentleman with a yen for love for a fee
Could always go to Nancy Ann's for some feminine company.
Well, one night in June in the billiard room I was chalking up with a friend.
He was set to break when the door burst open and Leo James rushed in.
He yelled, "There's a fire that's just broke out and it's down at Nancy Ann's"
So we dropped our cues on the poolroom floor and down the street we ran.

Though the flames were hot and the smoke was thick not a single life was lost,
And the reason for the blaze was never found;
But it long will be remembered in our local history
As the fire that fairly scandalized the town,
The night Miss Nancy Ann's hotel for single girls burned down.

When we got to the place, the front was ablaze and so was the second floor,
So we cut around the side and up the alley and stopped aside the back door.
We were catching our breath when the door flew open and knocked poor Leo flat,
And out through the smoke ran Mayor Wills wearin' nothing but a black silk hat.
And right behind him with his shirt-tail afire came the local chief of police,
And banker Jones with the red-haired girl he always said was his niece.
And then I spied Miss Nancy Ann herself helping someone else out of the fire,
Her arm around the red bald head of old Judge McIntyre.
A deacon, a dentist, a deputy sheriff, and one state congressman,
The county physician, the city mortician, out through the flames they ran.
The grand parade of girls in gowns and hat-clad gentlemen
Through the thick gray smoke that certainly smelled like French perfume and gin.

Though the flames were hot...

Now everybody was out at the girls' hotel by the time the roof caved in.
We were headin' back to the billiard hall when Leo turned to my friend.
He said "I believe that's the funniest show I've ever seen in town.
The so-called elite caught out in the street with their pompous purity down."

Though the flames were hot...